Existing bio-threat alert devices, systems and methods may have been based on static, or substantially static, information. In the result, the alerts generated by these prior art devices, systems and methods may have been out-of-date, sometimes perhaps dangerously so. Additionally, some prior art bio-threat alert devices, systems and methods may only have afforded excessively slow response times, in comparison to the speed of spread of the virus and/or bio-agent. In the result, the prior art may have been lacking a device, system or method capable of providing timely and accurate alerts concerning active bio-threats.
What may also have been missing from prior art alert devices, systems and methods may have been an ability to provide for the early stage bio-detection of diseases.
Though not essential to the working of the present invention, what may be needed is an alert device, system and/or method (such as that provided according some preferred embodiments of the present invention) which may preferably be integrated inside a diagnostic device. Exemplary diagnostic devices, systems and/or methods may be disclosed in International Patent Application Nos. PCT/CA2007/000211 and PCT/CA2007/002317. Alternately, it may be desirable to integrate an alert device, system and/or method inside a diagnostic device equipped with (a) a data transfer system and/or (b) global positioning and/or localization features. Preferably, in this manner, the alert device, system and method according to the present invention may preferably help to resolve, obviate and/or mitigate one or more of the aforementioned problems and/or shortcomings associated with the prior art.
It may also be advantageous for a diagnostic device—integrating the alert device, system and method according to the present invention—to preferably be able to transfer, in real and/or near real-time, the biological information regarding a bio-agent or bio-threat.
There may be some benefit for such an alert device, system or method to incorporate and/or be associated with a substantially reactive information technology architecture. Together with a diagnostic device, such an alert device, system or method may preferably help to allow precise identification of a potential bio-threat. An alert device, system or method of this type may preferably find advantageous utility, especially insofar as it may provide a substantially useful or complete set of information for stopping or delaying a bio-threat.
Ideally, the alert device, system and method according to the present invention may usefully produce a mapping of the geographic origin of a disease or bio-threat and the parameters of its evolution through a region.
It is an object of one preferred embodiment according to the invention to provide an alert system and/or method.
It is an object of one preferred embodiment according to the invention to provide an alert system and/or method which may preferably identify, or help to identify, a geographic origin of a disease and/or bio-threat.
It is an object of one preferred embodiment according to the invention to provide an alert system and/or method which may preferably identify, or help identify, a geographic origin of a disease and/or bio-threat—preferably based on clinical parameters, sociological data, infrastructure data, and/or geophysics information.
It is an object of one preferred embodiment according to the invention to provide an alert system and/or method which preferably may produce, or help to produce, a mapping of the geographic origin of a disease and/or parameters of its progress and/or evolution through a region.
It is an object of one preferred embodiment according to the invention to provide an alert system and/or method which preferably use a combination of data to produce, or help to produce, a mapping of the geographic origin of a disease and/or parameters of its progress and/or evolution through a region.
It is an object of one preferred embodiment according to the invention to provide an alert system and/or method which may preferably use one or more statistical algorithms and/or probability theory, preferably to identify, or help to identify, the propagation speed, the intensity and/or the most infected area in a very short time, and preferably in real-time (or near real-time).
It is an object of one preferred embodiment according to the invention to provide a system and/or method for use in biological and/or medical applications.
It is an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate one or more of the aforementioned mentioned disadvantages associated with the prior art, and/or to achieve one or more of the aforementioned objects of the invention.